Joseph Juran

Joseph Moses Juran (December 24, 1904 – February 28, 2008) was an evangelist for quality and quality management. The first edition of his Quality Control Handbook in 1951 attracted the attention of the JUSE, which invited him to Japan in 1952, where he was integral to the Japanese transformation.

In 1941, Juran stumbled across the work of Vilfredo Pareto and began to apply the Pareto principle to quality issues (for example, 80% of a problem is caused by 20% of the causes).

Juran was also one of the first to write about the cost of poor quality (COPQ).

While working in Japan at the same time as W. Edwards Deming (who focused on the use of statistical process control), Juran focused on managing for quality, and he added the human element into his teachings. He started teaching courses in Japan in 1954 in quality management. The training began with top and middle management, which was difficult to accomplish in the United States.

He also developed the popular “Juran Trilogy,” an approach to cross-functional management composed of three managerial processes: quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement.

Influences

• Frederick Taylor
• Walter Shewhart
• Western Electric Company
• Vilfredo Pareto

Influenced

• Boeing

Links

• Wikipedia
• Juran Institute
• ASQ Honorary Member

Books

• Juran’s Quality Handbook
• Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services
• Managerial Breakthrough: A New Concept of the Manager’s Job
• Juran on Leadership for Quality
• Quality Planning and Analysis: From Product Development Through Use

Videos